Is It Right to Spend $100 on Something Frivolous?

One of the things I work on with my students is how to take a side and support it with an argument. We do this by using Ethics from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity throughout the year. Since we are celebrating our 100th day of school this week, we talked about what $100 might be able to purchase. We looked at different ads and talked about how it might be a week's groceries or an electric bill. But how it could also buy a fancy pair of shoes or an expensive video game.

The question I posed to my students was, is it right to spend that much money on something frivolous? The responses were very interesting to me, only 2 students said no. Everyone else was ready to buy things from bikes to games. I wonder if older kids would have a different answer because they see more of the struggles their parents go through to pay bills.